Paris summit should empower end-users

In these difficult times, the monumental challenges facing the world can make the ordinary person feel rather helpless. From climate change to terrorism to geopolitical conflict, are the problems too overwhelming for people to take individual action?

As world leaders gather in Paris this week for a key summit to combat climate change, it can seem that all there is for the rest of us to do is wait to see if they can reach an agreement. But many businesses are advising these leaders to craft a deal that puts the power to stop climate change in the hands of ordinary people.

Last week, the European business association Eurochambers teamed with the campaign group Climate Action Network in a statement urging world leaders gathered in Paris to come to an ambitious and legally binding deal that will “shift investments towards renewable energy and energy efficiency” and away from fossil fuels. It’s not investment in pie-in-the-sky technologies predicted for the future. The technologies to allow users to harness, transfer and use energy in a smarter way are already here, just waiting for deployment.

Our role is to make sure that Life is On for everyone, everywhere, at every moment. Sustainability is thus at the heart of our company strategy. We believe we are living a very exciting time when new technologies enable us to completely rethink the way we deal with energy in a far more sustainable and efficient manner. – Jean-Pascal Tricoire

Many solutions are already technically proven, commercially viable and already implemented. The challenge is accelerating the scale-up of these technologies with a financing system that can be mobilized together with a supportive and enabling regulatory framework. Business groups say the sooner this is accomplished, the smoother and faster energy transition will be.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the European commissioner for climate action and energy, said last month that his focus in 2016 will be presenting legislation to “make our electricity market work better” and “bring down our energy consumption.” But businesses worry such EU legislation will be timid if it follows a timid Paris deal.

Bringing down energy consumption involves increasing efficiency, and that means eliminating energy waste. As Commisioner Arias Cañete has observed in the past, the cleanest energy is the one we do not use. However too often, energy efficiency attracts much less attention than renewables and energy security. While it may not be glamorous, energy efficiency measures can empower the average person or business to greatly reduce cost and emissions all on their own.

Jean-Jacques Marchais, director of standardizations and regulations at Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, believes that the leaders in Paris should be focusing greater attention on efficiency.

“What we believe is – power to the people,” he says. “We need to start from the demand side, from the energy user. If we change the paradigm, start by the management of the demand and encourage local generation and flexibility, we transform the energy consumer into a ‘prosumer’. He can produce and manage energy better.”

Need to go beyond today INDC

Marchais acknowledges that driving this transition is not always easy. Sometimes the up-front costs can seem too daunting even for the most well-intentioned consumers. The deal in Paris should therefore identify the low-hanging fruit: those technologies which are ready to go and just need a boost.

“The issue is really scaling up with speed,” he says. “Priorities should be given to those areas which are easy to implement with reasonable upfront investments, with visible results, and quick pay back.” He says that monitoring, control and automation in building is one such area and it can be fitted on new as well as on existing buildings, reducing consumption by 20% to 50%, with pay back as short as two to three years.

Marchais notes that his company’s headquarters outside Paris is a prime example. After renting the building, known as ‘The Hive’, Schneider was able to halve its annual energy consumption in just three years, by using its own existing technologies. Schneider retrofitted a traditional existing structure with more than 5,000 measurement sensors, an advanced building management system and a consumption analysis platform capable of storing and processing the large volume of data generated by the building.

The company also nominated an energy manager in charge of constantly optimizing performance and comfort by working closely with the residents. It does not stop there. Schneider with the support of the building owner is now implementing renewable solutions (photovoltaic and geothermal) to produce up to 30% of the building consumption.

What the Paris summit can do to speed up this process beyond significant CO2 reduction targets is to encourage energy efficiency action plans at country level, based on energy users empowerment.

Bertrand Deprez, vice-president of EU government affairs at Schneider, says a Paris deal is needed to give the EU a push to be ambitious with its efficiency goals. “We need forward-looking policy framework by policy-makers to get there, not only for Europe but also for a vast majority of countries facing the same type of challenges, “he says. “A Paris deal must lead to a universal and binding agreement to limit our carbon emissions and stay within the 2 degree Celsius temperature increase scenario as well as to put a price on carbon. “

With only one week left in the Paris climate talks, time is running out for an ambitious deal that will help these technologies become widespread. Are world leaders up to the challenge?